Finding success in defeat is often a difficult thing for a team ina “what have you done for me lately” sports world.
With six personal records set by the San Diego State women’s crosscountry at the NCAA West Regional meet, the successes were aplenty.
The Aztecs finished 15th overall Saturday, three spots better thanlast year and the team’s best finish in more than five years. TheRegional meet held at Blue Lake Park in Troutsdale, Ore., was won bytop-ranked Stanford with 45 points, followed by UCLA (69 points),Washington (94 points), Arizona State (112 points) and UC SantaBarbara (175 points).
SDSU was once again led by quiet veteran senior Marie Nilsson, whofinished the six-kilometer race in 22nd place individually with atime of 21:04. Nilsson, finishing her first year for the Red andBlack, ran her third fastest time and set a school record with herfinishing time. Nilsson’s time easily beat the 6K record of 21:50already held by Jennifer Stakiw. She now owns four of the top sixtimes in SDSU record books.
“I’m really pleased with the way everyone ran,” coach JenniferNanista said, “You can’t come out with six (personal records) andthink you had a bad meet.”
Nilsson was helped by another Aztec finishing out her crosscountry career at this year’s Regional meet. Senior Kylie Edwardscame in 55th place with a personal best of 22:09. Edwards’ time wasalso good enough for fifth-fastest time in school history. The teamsmost consistent No. 2 all year in Christal Cuadra was the No. 3finisher Saturday coming in 70th with another personal best of 22:25.
Freshman Sara Cates (135th, 23:24), redshirt freshman ChristianFairing (143rd, 23:31), junior Tina Fodor (162nd, 24:06) and seniorAllison Brown (181st, 24:23) rounded out the rest of the SDSU team.
The competition faced by the Aztecs was arguably the toughest theyhad seen all year with five schools ranked in the top 30. Four of theschools finished in the top five with SDSU finishing far ahead of No.27 Nevada, who finished 28th with 793 points.
Notably, Stanford junior Alicia Craig won the individual regionalchampionship for the second year in a row with a time of 20:06. Shewas followed by Arizona State’s Amy Hastings, who finished with atime of 20:22 and teammate Sara Bei (20:27).
With top-ranked Stanford winning the meet and UCLA finishingsecond, both teams locked up automatic bids to the NCAAChampionships. The Championships are set to take place Nov. 24 inCedar Falls, Iowa.
